800 kg T-Rex Cake Aims for Guinness World Record at Good Food and Wine Show

What do you get if you mix 240 kilograms of fondant, more than 50 sheet cakes, 30 kilograms of filling, a range of edible concentrated colourings and a large support structure? For master cake decorator Deon Swarts, you get a chance to set a Guinness World Record as the creator of the world’s largest “Tyranno-cake-a-saurus Rex” or T-Rex cake.

Swart’s huge dinosaur cake will be on display at the upcoming Good Food and Wine Show, South Africa’s premier culinary event, which is taking place in Johannesburg between Friday 28 and Sunday 30 July at the Ticketpro Dome in Northgate.

Swart, owner of The Cake Genie in Mondeor, Johannesburg, has been making wedding cakes for over 25 years, and he welcomes challenging creations. In 2014, he was was asked to make a replica of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding cake for Fabiola Sata, the niece of late Zambian president Michael Sata. It took Swart three weeks to single-handedly create his masterpiece, and three days to transport the cake to Zambia via refrigerated truck.

But the T-Rex will be one of his most difficult creations yet.

The massive cake is being built in Swart’s double garage at home, so that it can be loaded onto a trailer for transportation to the festival. When complete it will be roughly 3.2 meters high, 2.8 meters long and 1.6 meters wide, and weigh in at 800 kilograms.

And his creation will not go to waste. After being displayed at the show, it will be donated to Food4Africa, an organisation which aims to combat malnutrition by providing young disadvantaged children in Southern Africa with vitamin and mineral enriched meals. It is currently feeding more than 13 800 children every day.

Kids Cooking Club

The cake is sure to draw the attention of kids, leaving them raring to do some cooking and baking too. Young aspiring cooks aged 4 to 12 years old can head over to the show’s Kids Cooking Club, presented in collaboration with Soda Stream.

In this special area of the show for kids, youngsters will learn how to do things like making chocolate and zucchini muffins, preparing breakfast-omelette cups and baking choc chip and smarties cookies. There will also be colouring pictures, fun competitions, and good old fashioned soda floats.

Entrance to the Kids Cooking Club is included in the show’s ticket price. Adults must supervise children aged 6 years and below.

While the kids learn the secrets of the perfect choc chip cookie, mom and dad can look forward to seeing a bevy of big-name stars, including trailblazing British chef Marco Pierre White, and South Africa’s first Michelin-starred chef Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen.

Jenny Morris, Lentswe Bhengu, Neill Anthony, Sarah Graham and Sherwyn Weaich are also on the Good Food and Wine Show’s menu, in addition to headline sommeliers Lloyd Jusa (Saxon Hotel) and Gregory Mutambe (12 Apostles Hotel) – who will all share some of their fine wine knowledge.

In an exclusive first, headline chef, restaurateur and foodie Joao Da Fonseca, popularly known as J’Something, will share his secret recipes by preparing a tasty feast for the shows. As an added bonus, J’Something will take to the stage to perform his music as this multi-talented personality is also the leading man of popular band Mi Casa.Follow the Good Food and Wine Show on Twitter @goodfoodSA Instagram @goodfoodsa and facebook www.facebook.com/ GoodFoodandWineShowSA #GFWS2017

Ticket prices for 2017

The early bird online prices are valid up to one week prior to each show. Thereafter the door prices are applicable. Children under 12 can attend for free and Fridays are free for pensioners. Tickets are available online at www.goodfoodandwineshow.co.za and Ticketpro for Johannesburg.